CA PCC/PCE Group II : Information Technology and Strategic Management - November 2008

Customer number, name, type, book number, number of copies ordered and unit price are given as input. Draw a flowchart to calculate the net amount of the bill for each customer and print it. The above is to be carried out for 50 customers.

Sahni Auto Industries is a manufacturer and exporter of Auto parts with an annual turnover of Rupees one thousand crores. It employs about 2,000 persons in its factory in Punjab and its other offices in India and abroad.

The Personnel Administration and Human Resources Department of the company is headed by Mr. Amit Kapoor––the Chief Personnel Manager. Mr. Amit Kapoor, an Automobile Engineer joined the company 5 years ago as Product Development Manager. After a successful stint of 4 years as Product Development Manager, he was transferred to Personnel Administration and Human Resources Department as the Chief Personnel Manager as a part of Career development plan. Mr. Vikas, MBA in Human Resources from a renowned Business school, joined the company as Personnel Manager only 3 months back. He reports to Mr. Amit Kapoor--the Chief Personnel Manager. He handles all routine personnel and industrial relations matters.

One day, during informal discussion with Mr. Amit Kapoor, Mr. Vikas suggested him of linking Human Resources Management with Company's strategic goals and objectives to further improve business performance and also to develop Organisational culture that fosters more innovative ideas. He also advocated creating abundant ‘Social Capital’ on the ground that people tend to be more productive in an environment which has trust and goodwill embedded in it rather than which is highly hierarchical and formal. Mr. Amit Kapoor disagreed with Mr. Vikas and told him that the role of Human Resources Department was only peripheral to the business and all his suggestions about its strategic role were beyond the purview of Personnel Administration and Human Resources Department. After this, Mr. Vikas started having number of arguments with Mr. Amit Kapoor in several issues relating to personnel and industrial relations since he felt that a person with a degree in Human Resources Management was in a far better position to run Personnel Administration and Human Resources Department. Mr. Amit Kapoor – the Chief Personnel Manager had often shown his displeasure on Mr. Vikas’s argumentative. tendency and had made it known to the General Manager.

The General Manager called Mr. Amit Kapoor in his office to inform him that he has been elected for an overseas assignment. He further told him to find a suitable person as his successor; he even suggested Mr. Vikas as a possible candidate. Mr. Amit Kapoor, however, selected Mr. Balram, who was working as Training Manager in a Multinational Company for the last 5 years.

Mr. Vikas, soon started having arguments with Mr. Balram also over number of issues relating to industrial relations since he felt that he had no experience in handling industrial relations matters. Mr. Balram now realised that Mr. Vikas was trying to make things difficult for him. After a series of meetings with the General Manager, Mr. Balram eventually succeeded in convincing him to transfer Mr. Vikas to an office outside Punjab. On learning about his impending transfer, Mr. Vikas wrote a letter to the General Manager joining details of various instances, when Mr. Balram had shown his incompetence in handling problematic situations. When asked for explanation by the General Manager, Mr. Balram had refuted almost all the allegations. The General Manager accepted his explanation and informed Mr. Vikas that most of his allegations against Mr. Balram were unwarranted and baseless. He further advised him to avoid confrontation with Mr. Balram. Mr. Vikas then wrote a letter to the Chairman repeating all the allegations against Mr. Balram. On investigation, the Chairman found most of the allegations were true. He then called all the three-the General Manager, the Chief Personnel Manager and the Personnel Manager in his office and implored them to forget the past and henceforth to work in coordination with each other in an environment of Trust and Goodwill.